Author Archives: blogger

A Start-Up Library for the Diaspora in Silicon Valley: An Emerging Story

by Mantra Roy

As an academic librarian in a public Higher Education Institute in the most diverse metropolitan city in the United States, San José in California, a major city in Silicon Valley in the greater Bay Area, I am very familiar with conversations about developing programs and services for students whose native language may not be English or who may speak multiple languages. San José is also home to several diasporic communities and in recent times, large percentages of Asian population have moved into the larger Bay Area, primarily because of the technology industry.

Of the Asian population, those from India have accounted for a major percentage. KQED reported in 2016, on the basis of AAPI Data (publisher of demographic data and policy research on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders), that 350,000 Indians have moved to California over the last fifteen years. Mercury News reported that same year in an updated report about how affluent cities such as Cupertino, Palo Alto, Fremont, and Milpitas, have been experiencing more diversification in the Asian population owing to the rise in the number of Indians moving into them. In the growing Indian community, there are sub-groups based on languages as well as the states of origin in India. For example, there are Bengalis from the eastern state of West Bengal, there are Tamilians from the state of Tamil Nadu in southern India, there are Marathis from the western state of Maharashtra, and so on and so forth. Many of them can be Hindi speaking (typically spoken in the northern states of India) but coming from southern states like Telangana or Telugu speaking (the language of a southern state) but they have grown up in New Delhi, the capital of the country and located in North India.

Most of these communities have one or more cultural organizations which become community platforms for cultivating the arts such as music, cinema, dances, and religious or community festivals of each state or region. People from corresponding regions or states typically attend these events in order to stay connected with their native cultures and to pass it on to their children who, in many cases, are US citizens and experience their parents’ country during annual trips to India or through these cultural associations. These community associations also encourage the cultivation of the many languages of India, 22 of which are recognized by the Constitution of India, along with thousands of dialects. Many of these sub-groups conduct language classes as well.

All the languages of India have long literary traditions. Readers in these languages often purchase books on their annual trips to India or find niche bookstores in the USA where they find the latest authors writing in their languages. Many public libraries across the country respond to community needs by hosting small collections of books in Indian languages. Recently, in the Queens Public Library in New York, a Bangla Corner was inaugurated in response to the need for books in the Bengali language.

The Bengali language, often known as Bangla, is the language of what was the Bengal province in eastern pre-independent India. Today, there are 228 million first language speakers and 37 million second language speakers of Bengali. It is the 7th most widely used language over the world and the 5th most widely spoken native language.

The capital of the province, Calcutta, today known as Kolkata, was the capital of British India until 1911. When India became independent from British rule in 1947, the eastern part of the province became part of East Pakistan and later in 1971 became what is today the nation of Bangladesh. So, the Bengali language is shared between the country of Bangladesh and West Bengal, an eastern state of India. The language, literature, music, and food continue to be shared, cultivated, and cherished across the international border even today.

The role of Bengali literature in the Bangla speaking community is central to its identity. In the diaspora, reading and access to Bengali literature remains a matter of avid interest. It will be of interest to know that the first Asian to win the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913 was Rabindranath Tagore who wrote in Bengali.

The Bay Area in California is home to thousands of Bengalis (the name of the community and language is the same) and several cultural organizations, founded, run, and attended by Bengalis from both India and Bangladesh, host events and festivals throughout the year. They celebrate Bengali music, literature, cinema, and food. There are several interest groups in the community where people meet to read poetry together or stage plays or record Bengali stories for online audiobooks.

Some volunteers sort books into genres while others work on the library management system in January 2022.

However, the Bay Area has not had a library where Bengali books and magazines would be available for borrowing. February 26, 2022 changed this forever. The Dishari Public Library held its hybrid inauguration ceremony as the very first Bengali library of the Bay Area. ‘Dishari’ means ‘direction’ in many Indian languages. The idea originated in the Bangla language classes taught by The Dishari Foundation since 2014. Reading literary works in a language is the best way to cultivate the language. When the first round of conversations in the community met with applause, when a fundraising campaign in November 2021 was successful, when an office space was offered for free to host the library collection, and when a team of volunteers, including me, joined hands, we were ready to open the library doors.

Cataloging by volunteers as the group discusses the genre classifications and transliterated spellings of books and authors in March 2022.

Some team members wrote the collection policy. Others built the Koha-based library management system, developed barcodes, and cataloged the books. Other team members procured the books: some met with community members and collected book donations; some went to Kolkata in India, purchased books and collected book donations from friends and families of Bay Area residents and had them shipped to the Bay Area. Others regularly attend cultural events in the area to promote the library collection. We have more than 500 books, including some rare author-signed copies. Many attendees at the inauguration event were from outside California and were curious about shipping books to out-of-state patrons. Some writers from Bangladesh have visited the library and expressed interest in supporting us. Many parents have brought their children to borrow children’s books.

But there are challenges. While we offer free membership and impose no fines for late returns, we have finite finances to run and expand the library. Currently, fundraising is our only source. Receiving book donations is not a problem but volunteer time to catalog them can become unsustainable. Transliterating Bengali titles for the catalog and determining several alternate spellings to facilitate discovery is time intensive and heavily dependent on volunteer availability. Increasing footfall in the library is a challenge as well because the library is open only on Saturdays when the volunteer team can be present in the library space. They have day jobs that keep them busy through the week.

One of the founding members (right) with community members who donated rare music and audio collections in April 2022.

The team wants to create programs and services that will engage our community members. Public libraries in the USA have served mainstream patron communities by building collections in English but have responded to non-English language speaking patrons’ needs over time and on the basis of study and analysis. The Dishari library’s niche patron base tied to only one language poses an interesting challenge from the opposite end. Programs and services that will appeal uniquely to the Bengali community need to be built. The team has reached out to literary-minded interest groups in the area to collaborate with them and make the library a thriving platform for exchange of ideas and intellectual enrichment.

The team wants to collaborate with other language groups from India and expand beyond Bengali-language collections. Outreach to other cultural groups and seeking alliances to make the Dishari Public Library a pan-Indian resource for the diaspora is a milestone the team wants to achieve in the near future.

This community library is one of its kind and hopes to meet the reading needs of a diasporic community. While challenges are many, the volunteers are dedicated to make this library a success. As a trained librarian, the exercise of determining subject classifications for literary genres in a non-Roman language as well as creating ideas for programs and services for a diasporic community have been a great learning experience for me. We hope the Dishari Library is embraced by the community and it begins to flourish with their patronage and that there are more libraries that serve the unique literary needs of diasporic communities.

Mantra Roy, Ph.D, MLIS
Collection Strategy Librarian
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library
San Jose State University
San Jose, CA 95192-0028

Board of Directors, FORCE11
International Advisory Committee, SALIS (India)

H22 City Expo in Helsingborg, Sweden

by Tina Haglund

For 35 days there is a buzz in the city of Helsingborg, Sweden. Between the 30th of May and the 3rd of July, Helsingborg City invites inhabitants, employees, and visitors to explore H22 City Expo. The overall theme for H22 is innovation for a smarter and more sustainable city. Within the theme, there is something for all ages and tastes – housing and design, national and international conferences, food and culture, entertainment, and family activities.

The H stands for Helsingborg. 22 alludes to the year 2022 when the city fair H22 City Expo will be held. H22 is also a nod to the previous fairs H55 and H99, even though they were more limited fairs. The city’s work with H22 consists of two parts: 1. A city-wide investment in innovation. It is about the journey itself towards a smarter and more sustainable city. 2. H22 City Expo – A stop where light is spread on everything that has been achieved until 2022.

During the past years, employees in the city of Helsingborg have had the opportunity to explore and apply for funds for testing new ideas and innovations. The public library of Helsingborg is for example working with co-creating with citizens to find out the needs and ideas in a new (and rebuilt) library in 2026. The results of this work so far are presented during various talks and presentations under these 35 days.

Employees can work as volunteers during the H22 and we can also take part and participate in different events to improve our skills and to get inspired.

Here are some of the things I´ve visited:

  • OPS! Sounds of Helsingborg. What does a city sound like? Sensors are collecting various data and create ambient music out of changes in the weather (wind strength, temperature, and light) by IoT.
  • Welcome home to 1972. An apartment is recreated as in 1972 in an area built in the same age. To understand the future you need to understand the past. In a combination with AR, you can also see the people who lived in the apartment.
  • Outdoor offices at Fredriksdals outdoor Museum. By providing outdoor workplaces as a way of promoting health and quality of life as well as sustainability and flexibility in working life. There are different diversified solutions with stationary and mobile outdoor offices with solar cells to cover the needs of wifi and electricity.

If you want to read more about all the things that happen, you find more info here: www.h22cityexpo.se

The event’s program content is arranged by administrations, companies, and H22 Partners – that is, companies, academia, and organizations that have chosen to become partners with the City of Helsingborg and H22.

Future Looks Good! Thoughts of collaboration with LIS educators in Finland

My work as a coordinator in the Tampere City Library’s regional development task includes duties like supporting the professional competence of library staff and promoting the cooperation between the libraries in our region in Pirkanmaa and Central Finland.

Jarkko Rikkilä, coordinator, Tampere City Library – Regional Development Task

I think that in achieving these goals we could benefit a lot from the change of ideas with the educational organizations that provide training of library and information science (LIS). There can be various ways to get a job from the library. In Finland the field of librarianship can be studied for example at a university or the university of applied sciences. We’ve been working on the relations actively towards library educators for a couple of years now to strengthen this.

The collaboration between the working life and training organizations is crucial when we think about our profession in the future. In our case, we have regular meetings with the Tampere University to discuss themes like up-to-date thesis subjects, library trainees and qualification matters. We’ve also contributed to round table sessions in the creation of new library programmes in the Seinäjoki University of Applied Sciences. Thirdly we’ve been sharing findings of the library customer service and of our concept called The driver’s licence to library customer service with the Turku University of Applied Sciences.

Within this framework I contacted Associate Professor Tuomas Harviainen (Tampere University), Lecturer Satu Salmela (Seinäjoki University of Applies Sciences) and Senior Lecturer Kati Haanpää (Turku University of Applied Sciences) to find out, what kind of skills are needed in the future and how the education should answer the challenges libraries face in the coming years.

Soft skills and qualifications

The very useful and accurate 2021 IFLA Trend Report Update points out multiple trends that are linked to librarian skills in the future. The trend #4 is The rise of soft skills and trend #17 Qualifications matter. Firstly I asked Tuomas, Satu and Kati how do they agree with these and how these two trends are taken in to account in the educational programmes in the Finnish library education?

Tuomas Harviainen: “The issues are highly relevant, and we’ve included several elements of this in the curriculum. As the report notes, useful soft skills may be tied to eg., several types of cultural knowledge, which is why a connection exists to for example information literacies. And as pointed out in #17, these are in turns parts of the expertise that form the wider whole librarianship nowadays. We try our best to guide our students to gather such expertise from also other disciplines during their studies.”

Satu Salmela: “Soft skills are sort of expertise in our field and to our students, perhaps easier to embrace than within some other fields. Without soft skills, I think it is difficult to reach your full potential in the working life. In our education these matters can partly be found in our general competencies and therefore they are taken into account throughout the whole curriculum. Teaching methods, pedagogical approaches and learning tasks of course also contribute. It’s clear that Qualifications matter, but we also try to teach the importance of multiprofessional co-operation and expose our students to it during their studies. Exactly because of the complexity and rapid changes, we need more co-operation and understanding of what our own core expertise is and when we should find strong alliances and benefit from other fields.”

Kati Haanpää: “Soft skills and competencies matter now and in the future. The ongoing pandemic with its restrictions forced libraries to adjust their operations and the services moved online. Digital skills, flexibility and problem-solving skills playing a very important role making transformation possible. Innovation pedagogy is in the core of our teaching methods. Competencies consist of five areas: creativity, critical thinking, initiative, teamwork and networking. Students learn these skills with teamwork and co-operation with the working life.”

Collaboration of LIS educators and professionals

One of the fundamental questions of this article is, how the collaboration with the public library sector and library educators should practically happen? What kind of co-operation would be needed? What would be the best practices of this collaboration from the perspective of Tuomas, Satu and Kati as LIS educators?

Tuomas Harviainen: “Co-operation with libraries is crucial for knowing how to best prepare our students for the needs of the working life, and while we cannot completely integrate all wishes (because our students graduate to many professions, some of which have very different needs), many of our key developments are conducted in dialogue with major employers such as public and academic libraries. Making coordination and cooperation meetings a regular part of our work here has in my opinion been a very wise move.”

Satu Salmela: I’m very proud of our good connections with the library community. Not just public libraries but other library sectors, other educational institutions and associations. Especially for us the continuous dialogue is the requirement to succeed in our basic task. Co-operation has found some settled forms during years but new ideas are also explored. Our curriculum is one way to ensure the co-op as studies include for e.g. long practical training period, work life based thesis, real life project work topics as well as case materials for courses and visiting guest lecturers. In the end it’s the wide networks that strive to continuous and diverse dialogue – but also organizing enough time for this is needed.

Kati Haanpää: “Cooperation is important as it gives education a perspective on where the field is progressing and what kind of expertise is needed. Libraries develop services with students in project collaboration and theses. Libraries provide internships, which means they get trainees interested and qualified experts in the future. We would like the libraries talk more about their own activities and vice versa. Students participate in organizing real events in libraries. Now that libraries provide a lot of training in the field – could they also be open to our LIS students?”

Three qualities of the future library professional

Because we all love to make scenarios for the future (don’t we?) I discussed the quality issues of the future librarian with our LIS educators. If Tuomas, Satu and Kati would have the chance to decide, what three features or qualities the future library professional would have – what would those be? What are these three important elements of professional development?

Tuomas Harviainen: “Future librarians should preserve many of the skills and qualities that they currently have, such as a customer-oriented approach, a thorough understanding of findability, and expertise in recommendations. A field of expertise I see growing in importance in addition to them is data management, which in this age of disputed privacy is of increasing importance to also public libraries and not just academic and research librarians.”

Satu Salmela: “I would say that continuous learning is very important. Because change is inevitable, curiosity to forecast important changes for our field and adaptiveness to learn new support learning. In addition the librarian needs interpersonal skills, such as ability to both listen, understand and communicate, take people and stakeholders into account. You could say the previous, soft skills. Thirdly the librarian needs innovativeness. You should know our history and goals but at the same time have the ability for problem solving and creating new solutions in this context.”

Kati Haanpää: “The three qualities could be pointed out as the following. First, the future librarian should have the flexibility in the multiple changes working life requires. Secondly the interaction and collaboration skills are important, for example in the library customer service. Thirdly the future professionals need pedagogical skills, that they can use and develop when interacting with the customers and colleagues.”

Conclusion – Future Looks Good!

Tuomas’, Satu’s and Kati’s answers draw a clear picture that the library educators in Finland follow the library trends and issues very closely. It’s great to see that especially the rise of soft skills is noted in the curriculums of LIS education. Qualification matters are a fact, but also multiprofessionalism and the wider scope of librarianship is taken into account. It seems that co-operation with the libraries is seen as highly recommended thing – which gives the educational organizations information of the working life, real life topics and certain kind of practical credibility in their work. I think this goes both ways – the libraries benefit of the dialogue later on when the new professionals are seeking job opportunities.

Finally a list of the qualities the future-looking-good librarian should have! Here’s a set of the important skills the librarian should have in his/her toolkit.

  1. Continuous learning
  2. Customer-oriented approach
  3. Data management expertise
  4. Expertise in recommendations
  5. Flexibility in the multiple changes
  6. Innovativeness
  7. Interaction and collaboration skills
  8. Interpersonal skills
  9. Pedagogical skills
  10. Understanding of findability

January 2022 newsletter issue published!

The Continuing Professional Development and Workplace Learning (CPDWL) Section would like to announce that our newest Newsletter (January 2022 issue) is now available!

Read about our section’s and members’ latest activities, projects and programmes.

This issue includes the following topics:

► Letter from the Chair
► The Guidelines Working Group
► The IFLA Coaching Initiative
► Interview: Dr. Dilara Begum, IFLA Division C Chair
► CILIP’s central knowledge and skills framework
► Innovation during COVID in public libraries
► Continuing Professional Development (CPD) for Library and Information Science (LIS) Professionals in Selected Asian Countries
► International Librarian Networking Program 2021: Collaboration, Sharing Experiences, and Friendship All in One IFLA CPDWL bingo
► CPDWL Officers and SC Members to August 2021

Check it out here:

https://repository.ifla.org/bitstream/123456789/1859/1/cpdwl-newsletter-january2022.pdf

Please, share the newsletter with others!

 

Philippines-Singapore: My Virtual M&M-CDPWL Coaching Experience by Dr. Mary Ann M. Ingua

Our coaching session with Rajen held via the Microsoft Team Meetings

I registered for the IFLA World Library and Information Congress (WLIC) 2021, and it was the first-ever virtual Congress that organized by IFLA. This experience allowed the congress to be accessible across continents, time zones, and different languages that allowed one to select sessions that had translations in language choices. It was a truly inclusive congress.

Why am I telling you this?

I am telling you this because the IFLA-WLIC 2021 paved the way for me to schedule an online coaching session with my coach, Mr. Rajen Munoo of Singapore Management University Libraries via MS Teams. On 20th July 2021, I received an invitation from the IFLA WLIC 2021 Congress Team regarding an exciting program on how to achieve goals and expand librarianship and professional development.

The IFLA Coaching Initiative, founded by IFLA’s Continuing Professional Development and Workplace Learning (CPDWL) and Management & Marketing (M&M) Sections. I felt that it was a great opportunity to join and participate. Consequently, at that time I was also contemplating or evaluating whether to accept the nomination plan of my colleagues regarding a University Librarian position in our university, the University of the Philippines, Los Banos. I was thinking whether it would be a good decision to accept the nomination or not. Voila! I received the timely invitation for a coaching experience, and thought of registering for the coaching session, and hoped to receive help in discerning which road or path to take. This was also a good idea since the coach was external to my organization and it would have been an objective approach to the crossroads that I was facing at that time.

I signed in on 27 August 2021 after the IFLA-WLIC Congress ended, and Rajen from SMU Libraries confirmed my coaching session with him.  During the session, I had a productive conversation with him beginning with self-introductions and sharing about our personal and professional backgrounds which helped break the ice and created a cordial tone for the rest of our conversations.  Rajen asked me why I signed up for the coaching program and I replied that I was at a crossroads on whether to accept the nomination for the position or remain in my current role by being involved in the usual work and services that I had in my university both in and outside of the campus. Rajen provided enlightening words that if my colleagues supported my nomination, then they have a strong belief and trust that I would be capable of leading the university library and becoming their University Librarian. He also added that if my colleagues are confident enough in my capabilities, why shouldn’t I? This struck me and it dawned upon me that maybe because of the many things happening now due to COVID-19 pandemic, both in the workplace and in the personal areas of my life, it lowered my self-esteem and self-confidence. Thankfully, by registering for the coaching session, Rajen reminded me and helped me regain my focus and confidence to want to serve, lead and give it a try!

We ended our hour-long session with reassurances by Rajen that whatever my decision would be, he will be there to help and coach me. In addition, he also shared opportunities for professional development opportunities such as scholarship information and attachment and exchange programmes should I decide to also push through a postdoctoral degree in the near future.  Rajen also shared an upcoming webinar, Why Should I Care? Libraries, Advocacy and the UN SDGs by Loida Garcia-Febo which I shared with my colleagues, and I gained new insights and knowledge on how we could implement or create programs in support of UN-SDGs.

Our coaching session would not be the first and the last session that we will have, but we planned to have another two sessions to follow up and assess what we started in our first meeting in the program. We will also discuss action plans and also talk about tips to deal with difficult situations. Now, I am looking forward to that next coaching session before the year-end.

I encourage LIS professionals to benefit from this free coaching session offered by the M&M in partnership with the CPDWL section where you can talk about any issue you may be currently experiencing and just speaking with someone outside your own organization or institution helps one to reframe and refocus to find meaning in what we do! It also helps to build your professional network. It takes only one hour but it was a priceless experience!

Blog written by:

Dr. Mary Ann M. Ingua
College Librarian and Cataloger
University of the Philippines, Los Banos
4031 College, Laguna PH
mmingua1@up.edu.ph

With inputs by:

Rajen Munoo
Head, Learning and Engagement
Singapore Management University Libraries
IFLA-CPDWL SC Member
rajen@smu.edu.sg

Take Good Care of Ourselves by Lim Kok Eng

Wellness and wellbeing are hardly new topics. But it has definitely come to the forefront since the beginning of 2020. The pandemic has been very challenging and disruptive to countries and individuals. It has disrupted our lives and our routines. Many of us have to work from home and students have online classroom or home-based learning for the longest time ever. There are those who feel confined at not being able to travel or even gather with families or friends.

The impact has been psychological, emotional and social. Many faced loneliness, decreased job and financial security, fear for lives of loved ones, etc. Some feel loss of control, frustration, alone, isolated and disconnected.

This pandemic has put the spotlight on mental wellness. In one recent survey, close to 72% of respondents ranked mental health as the most important influence on their personal health and wellbeing, just ahead of physical health at 70%. There is a growing awareness that mental health has an impact on overall health.

Self-care is not a selfish act but rather a conscious or deliberate act we take to promote our own physical, mental and emotional health. During this time, some of us take care of ourselves by keeping physically active while other learn new skills. Some take short me-time to rejuvenate.

How about you? What do you do to take care of your own mental health and wellbeing?

Any wellness website to share?

EIFL’s CPD Strategy for Public Libraries in Africa: Results and Lessons Learned (Part III) by SUSAN SCHNUER and UGNE LIPEIKAITE

EIFL photo: Kaltuma Sama, Head Librarian at KNLS / BuruBuru Public Library, lead the cascade training on re-designing library spaces in Mombasa, Kenya  (2018)

In 2018-2020, EIFL (Electronic Information for Libraries – www.eifl.net) developed and implemented a new CPD strategy in four African countries. The strategy is sustainable, country-wide, and affordable, using skilled local trainers. In the previous two blog posts we presented the assessment tools and methods, and the activities designed to transform local librarians into skilled trainers. In this post, we will share the results and learnings from the implementation of the CPD programme in Kenya, Namibia, Zambia and Uganda, and will discuss the sustainability of the programme in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

All in all, 62 librarians and ICT officers completed the EIFL supported CPD programme in Kenya, Namibia, Uganda and Zambia, and are now being deployed in ongoing staff development for public libraries in their countries. By the end of 2020, the 62 trainers, who had learnt subjects critical to introduction of modern library services as well as generic training and facilitation skills, had cascaded their knowledge to over 1,400 librarians and other information professionals, including public, community, school, government librarians and volunteers, who run community libraries.

The training did not stop even during the pandemic – some trainers in Kenya managed to successfully adapt the training to an online format and continued enabling their peers with new skills. Namibia Library and Archives Service (NLAS) is also building an online training strategy, which includes monthly online training sessions on different topics. To support the network of trainers in all four countries, EIFL initiated virtual T-breaks, regular informal online meetings, which serve as an opportunity to learn new topics, discuss training experiences and share ideas with others.

To assess the impact of the programme, we applied an extensive methodology which consisted of: 1) Pre- and post- skills audits of local trainers to capture the improvement of their skills; 2) Feedback surveys immediately after each training session to evaluate how well the training was received by the participants; 3) Impact survey of the public librarians who participated in cascade training to find out what changes they had made in their libraries after the training.

The impact evaluation found that the CPD programme had positive outcomes for the local trainers. First of all, the programme improved the way the trainers perform their daily duties as library staff. It also made them better leaders and stronger advocates, which led to increased recognition of senior managers. As one of the trainers, Kaltuma Sama from Buruburu Library in Kenya, put it: “Continuous professional development has had such a huge impact on me as a person and also on my career. As a person, I have come out of my shell, I feel more confident than before. My career has also changed for the better, I have realized my potential as a leader too.” For details on the programmes and impact evaluation findings, please read the reports for Kenya and Namibia.

EIFL photo: During hands-on design thinking training Letta Shivute Librarian of Mariental Community and NLAS trainer showcased a prototype for new library service (2019)

However, the most important outcome of the CPD programme was the way in which it benefited librarians who participated in the cascade training conducted by the local trainers. For example, EIFL’s partner, NLAS, conducted an impact survey of all 51 public libraries where staff had participated in cascade training. The survey showed that all participants were very satisfied with the training and almost 90 percent of respondents found training to be very relevant for improvement of service delivery. After participating in the training, many libraries managed to start new services, for example weekly teenage games club (Luderitz Public Library), cooking club (Okahandja Library), creation of user interaction platform on WhatsApp (Otjomuise Public library), organizing training for street children (Omaheke Regional Library) and others.

The impact survey in Kenya revealed very similar results and showed that the cascade training had opened the eyes and shifted the mindsets of librarians, who became more proactive in seeking solutions to their libraries’ challenges, rather than waiting for solutions to be found by library authorities. Many libraries in Kenya also introduced changes or new services in their libraries, for example coding for children (Muranga Library), redesigned the junior section with input from the children on painting, murals, and quotes for the walls (Karatina Library), smart farming (Meru Library), lending mobile devices with educational material to children (Kibera Library), digital wellness for youth (Thika Library) and many others.

Reflecting on this CPD approach in general, EIFL and partners concluded that it is a sustainable and cost-effective way to strengthen CPD of public librarians in countries with fewer resources. This model can be replicated in other countries that have strong national institutions responsible for public library development, and in bigger public library systems that have several hundred staff. Our experience has also taught us that partners engaged in CPD initiatives need to have a shared vision for public libraries, and that the trainers need to buy into that vision with enthusiasm and pride. Finally, we learned that when an international organization (like EIFL) engages with an in-country partner (for example, NLAS), the more control the national partner and local librarians have over the project, the better the results. In fact, even before the project in each country ended, we knew that we were no longer needed. We could move on to future projects with smiles on our faces.

To find out about other activities of EIFL’s Public Library Innovation Programme, please visit: www.eifl.net/plip

 

***

Authors:

SUSAN SCHNUER, EIFL’s Public Library Innovation Programme, Capacity Building Manager

For over 27 years Susan Schnuer has trained librarians, in developing and transition economy countries, to be agents of change in their communities. Her passion is to identify and coach talented librarians, helping them to explore their potential as leaders and trainers in their communities. Her philosophy is to ‘tread lightly’ by co-developing training programmes that are tailored to meet the unique needs of librarians in different countries or regions.

UGNE LIPEIKAITE, EIFL’s Public Library Innovation Programme, Impact Manager

Ugne Lipeikaite’s expertise in developing impact evaluation methodologies and tools for measuring the outcomes of public library services has grown over a period of 15 years. Ugne has contributed to the design and implementation of major international research projects to measure the impact of public internet access in libraries and the role of libraries in providing connectivity and digital skills in communities. Ugne has developed training courses and trained public and community librarians in several countries in Africa on how to assess the needs of communities and the impact of library services.